The Rivera Estate

The Front Hall

7:19

Friday

"Dean? Dean?" called Alicia. She was standing on the marble floor, dressed in orange silk boy shorts and a matching baby-doll cami. She had bright orange fluffy kitten heel slippers at her feet, and her long black silky hair had been pulled back and was tied with an orange satin ribbon.

Her driver came through the big kitchen swinging doors, in his black tail-coats which was his uniform. He had a slice of pear in his hand, and a little juice was dribbling down his chin.

"Yes, Alicia?" he asked, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

"I need to be at Massie's at eight o'clock, so can you call me when it's time to go so we can go and be there on time? Thanks!" she said. She pulled off the slippers and hooked her pinkie finger around the strap (so they wouldn't scratch the wood on the stairs), and then padded up the spiral stairs to her bedroom. Once she arrived, she went to her desk and sat down in front of her brand new iMac. As soon as she logged onto her IM account, she got an instant message.

loco4polo: alicia! hey!

hollagurl: hi josh!

loco4polo: how r u?

hollagurl: gd gd. and u?

loco4polo: same. but

hollagurl: what????

loco4polo: well, have you been ignoring me lately?

hollagurl: omg i'm so sorry! it's just that my frends are still down bout skye's party, so I didn't want to make them feel bad

loco4polo: how sweet

hollagurl:

loco4polo: alicia – do u want 2 hang out sometime?

hollagurl: like… as a date?

loco4polo: ;) sure

hollagurl: uh, totally! but on the dl, cause of my frends…

loco4polo: fine by me

"Alicia! We should be going now!" yelled Dean from down the stairs. Alicia sighed, turned around and shouted, "COMING!"

Then, she looked back at the screen and poised her fingers above the keyboard.

hollagurl: sorry josh, i gotta go now. ttyl

After logging off, Alicia grabbed her white patent leather Chanel weekend bag, which contained her clothes for the next day, toiletries and her eye-mask. She slung on a gold kimono that her mother had bought in Japan, and hurried downstairs, clutching her slippers and bag. Dean was waiting outside, in her limo. Alicia could see the lights on.

"Adios, Mama!" she called from the hallway. She slipped on her slippers and ran outside, the heels getting occasionally wedged into the gravel of the driveway. Alicia hopped into the back of the limo, and Dean started driving. On the way to Massie's house, Alicia reflected on the situation with Josh Hotz, the boy fast and the Pretty Committee. She knew that she should probably shun Josh and not have anything to do with him, but she liked him so much and it was obvious that he liked her. Besides, she had already promised to go out with him, and it would be rude to tell him she couldn't go anymore. Right? It would only be a matter of time before he got tired of her excuse that she didn't want her friends to be jealous. He might think she was lying, and dump her. And what if he found out about the boy fast? Alicia would be totally embarrassed and Massie would be furious (her cover-up to the general public was that she was acting aloof and distant, thus playing hard-to-get). Alicia had already been in trouble with the rest of the Pretty Committee before, when she started to start her own clique, and she didn't want to go through that again. She knew how mean Massie could get.

"Alicia, we've arrived", she heard Dean say, "What time do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure", replied Alicia. "I'll call you. Thanks for the ride".

She hopped out and began sauntering towards the house. She saw a plain blue Toyota car pull up in the driveway. Out came Kristen, dressed in a white flowery pyjama set. She had a small purple Lacoste duffle slung over her shoulder.

"Hey, Leesh! What's up?" she grinned. Her short blonde hair was finally long enough to bet put into a ponytail, and it was bobbing up and down.

"Uh, nothing! Nothing at all", said Alicia sheepishly. She hugged her bag to herself.

"Cool. I finished SO many word jumble and crossword books this week. I've had like, NOTHING to do", smiled Kristen, looking a little confused at Alicia's abrupt answer.

"Anyway! Your hair! It's grown!" said Alicia, trying to change the conversation.

"I know! I think by the end of the summer it'll be up to my shoulders!" exclaimed Kristen, twirling the tiny stub of hair at the nape of her neck.

The two girls hooked arms and strode to the door of the house. Kristen rang the doorbell, and as they waited for the door to open they gossiped and chatted. Then, Massie and Claire appeared at the doorway. They were wearing matching pyjamas - they both wore striped cotton shorts and a matching tank top from Petit Bateau, only Massie's was blue and Claire's was pink.

"HEY!" they both shouted at the same time. The four girls hugged each other and squealed about what they had done over the past week after school had broken up. They hadn't seen each other since the previous Friday and had quite a lot to talk about. Claire abstained, however, from telling them that her Florida friends were coming to visit.

The girls went to the huge screening room, where Claire and Massie had set up for the night. Four sleeping bags were lined up, and bowls of popcorn, sweets and chocolate was scattered around. A karaoke set was in the corner, and stacks of DVDs were lying next to the DVD player which was hooked up to the screen at the front of the room, which took up the whole wall. Kristen whistled and sat herself down on her sleeping bag. From it she pulled a pyjama set which was pink and said 'Juicy' repeatedly in black script. The shorts had ruffles on the end and so did the tank top. Underneath her sleeping bag, she wiggled out of her current girly ensemble and pulled on the slightly sexier alternative she had brought with her.

"Guys… Claire has some news!" said Massie, the corners of her mouth curling up in a sly smile that Claire knew too well.

"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" chanted Alicia and Kristen. Alicia ignored the closeness between Claire and Massie, from their matching jim jams and Massie's wide knowledge about Claire's life. It had caused pressure amongst the Pretty Committee before, and she didn't want it to happen again.

Claire scowled at Massie, who just winked and tossed a silken lock of hair over her shoulder. She had wanted to tell the Pretty Committee her news slowly and just before going to bed, when they were too high on sugar and caffeine to pay much attention to her. Alicia and Kristen began to poke Claire, in their persistence for her to tell them the news.

"FINE! Just stop poking me!" Claire cried, swatting away their pointy fingers. "It's not much, really. My friends from Florida are just coming to spend a week here in Westchester". She rolled her eyes and giggled nervously, not wanting them to see how anxious she was.

"WHAT?" shrieked Alicia. She still wasn't sure that she liked Claire very much, what with her kissing Josh and the underwear stunt she had pulled. She wasn't sure she could cope with her pathetic friends, who would basically be exactly the same as Claire had been when she came to Westchester for the first time and before she had been molded by the Pretty Committee.

Kristen just sat in her sleeping bag with her legs crossed, her navy blue eyes wide open. She thought Claire was nice, sweet and 'pure'. Her actions didn't usually have malicious intentions underneath them, like most of the other Pretty Committee's. She was happy when her friends did well, not jealous and annoyed. And there was the plus side of her keeping Kristen's secret for all that time. She was quite sure her friends would be just as kind, but she didn't want there to be all the trouble it would cause amongst the Pretty Committee. Despite the boy fast and problems they'd previously been having, the last two weeks of school and week of holidays they had been relatively peaceful and there were few fights between them.

Massie cleared her throat. "AnyWAY. I think we should start to have some FUN. I've got tons of DVDs, and a my new karaoke, and all this food... I can get Inez to make us some smoothies!"

The girls shrugged away the problem looming and laughed at Massie's obsessive compulsion. They spent the rest of the night watching bad movies and singing old songs, stuffing their faces with sugary goodness. When they settled in for bed at midnight, they had all forgotten about the Florida friends coming the next day.

Except for Claire. She wondered how the Pretty Committee would behave towards her friends; she hoped they would be a little nicer to them than they had been to her. But the thing that made her most nervous was the fact that she hadn't told Kristen, Alicia and Massie. They were arriving the next day, they knew that. But they didn't know that they were going to arrive at nine thirty in the morning. Claire hoped that Alicia and Kristen would have left by then.